Maria Zakharova noted that Russia never used legislation against foreign correspondents with the purpose of pressuring, censoring or wielding political influence

MOSCOW, October 8. /TASS/. The US authorities’ clampdown on Russia’s RT television channel is pushing Moscow into taking tit-for-tat measures against US media outlets, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in an interview with a weekly weekend program aired on NTV.

"It is a special case, where the entire system is being used against our channel, which includes administrative resources, as well as propaganda on US soil. Thus, in response to anything undertaken against Russian reporters and the RT channel in the US, given that we qualify this as restricting (press) activity, we will take similar action against US reporters and US media here in Russia," she warned.

"We do not see any difference if they are state media, or media funded by a small chain of American state agencies, or even private media – it makes no difference to us," she added.

Russia has never used legislation against foreign correspondents with the purpose of pressuring, censoring or wielding political influence, she added. "This has never happened in modern Russia, even in the most difficult moments."